Scheduling robot task performance for a cooperative human and robotic team

Future space missions will benefit from leveraging the unique capabilities of a cooperative human and robot team for performing operational and exploration activities. This research extends the task allocation and scheduling methodology demonstrated in previous research to characterize the effect of the robotic agent's performance of tasks on overall team performance. Analysis of this parameter in future scheduling projects would provide guidance in selecting a robot design that not only satisfies all operational goals but also contributes to the overall cooperative team performance. The schedules developed meet all of the mission constraints while minimizing overall task list completion time and minimizing the wait time between agents. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.